I titled this blog Mobile Kodgers because it began as a report on the first Mobile Codgers Rendezvous---which I organized. I've kept the title and expanded my reports to include everything that I find interesting in my travels. I walk in the footsteps of Thoreau, "advancing confidently in the direction of my dreams", proving with my life that deep freedom is possible and easier than imagined.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

THE ART OF DRIFTING---PART 2

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN FROM RUIDOSO---fire danger has closed the forest--so we will drift north to the high mountains of New Mexico. But we're in no great hurry. Considered winding my way to the top of that mountain to get cool---Gallinas peak--8,500 ft. But learned that it's closed too.

Settled for the night at the edge of this tremendous lava field---45 miles long---different from most lava fields because it oozed out of a hole in the ground instead from a mountain cone. About 25 miles due west is Trinity site where the first atomic bomb was detonated.

Next day North across the flat yellow plains, stopping to walk the remote town of Corona---visit its museum.

A missed turn took us to Vaughn, NM---a walk past this motel let us meet these two interesting guys---with a serious message for America---they're riding scooters across the nation--stopping at churches to give a rather shocking report: "There are about 120,000 slaves currently in America. Mostly sex and labor slaves--tricked into coming here--hidden away--exploited and abused."

Then North on a lovely back road (NM hwy 3) for 40 miles without meeting another car.

Headed here: Villanueva St. Park---Can you see my rig parked on that ridge?

It's a wild and wierd wasteland.

With just a bit of arable farmland. It's hard to believe that a caravan of settlers in colonial times made their way here to live their lives.

There's the sleepy little village. I'll go for a closer look.

The community well---Artfully done--right in the center of town.

Old houses of stone and tin.

And adobe---most are still occupied. About 160 people in the vicinity.

Adobe houses unlived in soon melt

They have a church ----and on a nearby hill -- a shrine--with stations of the cross marked along the way.

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES: I walked around letting the village speak to me--chatted with a few citizens----asked myself if it was soul-killing or soul enhancing to live ones life in an obscure, remote, sleepy village. I really ought to know---because I lived 17 years in one. I SAY IT IS SOUL STIFLING. Especially in this Catholic village--tyrannized by guilt-inflicting priest, frustrated by crazy old customs, isolated from fresh thoughts and visons. The English poet Grey--in his classic poem: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard----spoke of such stifled people:

13 comments:

==========My roots run deep in a small town about 75 miles north of where I live now (in the much larger city of Boise, ID). Though I love my small town and visit it frequently, I often find myself humming Paul Simon's song "nothing but the dead and dying in my little town" as I'm driving through. Mostly I see the buildings and people who are no longer there.==========I agree that sequestered communities (whether by geography or intent) don't encourage the broadening of one's horizons.==========sail4free==========

Boring town. I always think "how cute" but then I realize I would never want to be there. Dealing with the same boring, closeminded people day in and day out. Everyone knowing your business. No escape from a truly dirt poor existance.

No thanks. Thanks for showing me what I don't want. I love the "Randy philosophizes" bits . . .

There are no nice priest for the same reason that there are no nice Taliban.What they believe and teach is inherently destructive--for example: that they have access to moral certainty (revealed ethics versus fabric-of-agreement ethics). They teach that artifical birth control, homosexuality, masturbation and abortion are sins that can send you to eternal hell. They all are guilt-inflicting, creativity stifling phony authoritarians---and I agree with Voltaire: The world will know no peace till the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

You go Randy - I love the Voltaire quote. Amazing that in the 1700's (Voltaire's era - he lived to be 84) that he saw the tyranny of religion. He also saw and railed against the tyranny of the absolute monarchy of France as opposed to England which had some semblance of a constitutional monarchy. Had he stayed in a small town and never ventured forth he would not have known the difference.

==========Per meeting "the priest" and speculation he might be a nice guy? I really doubt it. In my experience, trolls have some things in common. Most noticeably, they're incapable of original thought . . . much less independent thought. They create NOTHING of value. Just as misery loves company, trolls go looking to drag others into their bilious and miserable conflicts, hoping their victim may suffer as they do.==========The most effective way -- by far -- to deal with such neurotic people is to deny them an audience. Don't acknowledge them on any level at any time EVER. Pretend (as hard as that can be) they don't exist; never did; and they never will. Exercise any and all administrative options to block/delete/neutralize -- and the sooner the better. Like a stalker who calls his X over and over just to get his "fix" by hearing her voice on the answering machine, ANY response only heightens their appetite and makes them hungry for MORE. They are never satiated. Never satisfied. And perhaps incapable of either. They will create daggers endlessly -- and without mercy -- much faster than any sane person could ever adequately respond to them. Their only function in life is to attempt to infect others with their poison. Their prey is anyone who indulges their neurosis. One must make a conscious decision to reject them wholesale.==========sail4free==========

Wow Jim: I thought I knew how to bash the insanity of religion. I stand instructed. My deepest objections to religion is that it tribalizes humanity, impedes the evolution of ethics, infantalizes billions.

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About Me

"BRAINGLOW" Is my goal! It glows when experience is flowing through me; when I am interested, challenged, on purpose. Slow travel and short visits have proved optimal for my purpose. I won my financial freedom 30 plus years ago by efficient living and house renovation. Now I wander and wonder---read, write, play, dance, sing, engage whoever interests me and regularly report via this blog. I urge my readers to consider a "heroes' journey" for their life---1. Respond to ones' fascinations 2. wake up ones' creativity 3. Share your adventure.
My book, 40 Years a Nomad, is now available. See Links below.